11 December 1998
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
Plato rules, OK?
Alain de Bottonargues that, in our self-help age, the ancient philosophers are inevitably more popular than Derrida, Baudrillard and the deconstructionists
Features
Peace crawls through a moral swamp
John Lloyd reveals that, despite the Good Friday Agreement, violence is rising in Ulster as the paramilitary gangs continue to beat, murder and torture
How William failed the virility test
Hague is trying to look like a prime minister, when he should concentrate on being leader of the opposition. Simon Hefferoffers advice
Dawn raids: a guide to the etiquette
They've come to take your husband away. How should you treat them, asks Gillian Linscott
Please trust the workers, Mr Dobson
The new mental health policies rely too much on dirigiste managers, argues Andrew Cooper
Will Castro be next in the dock?
Cuba's dictator is just as bad as Pinochet, argues the right. Maurice Walshweighs the evidence
Why sucking up to China has failed
Our leaders just express dismay while they keep stamping on human rights. Jonathan Mirskyreports
Blair can learn from Stephen Fry
Governments usually become old and cynical. Donald Hirschhopes this one will be an exception
Blair should listen to the screamers
Emily Greenasks why the Food Standards Agency has been put on the back burner
Regulars
Arts & Culture
Carrying a torch
Sinatra had no monopoly on songs of love and loss. Richard Cook recalls the female singers who told it their way
Back to the future
Film
A Grimm business
Theatre
Books
The long road to oblivion. Ian Aitken on Simon Heffer's lucid and majestic tribute to the controversial genius of Enoch Powell
Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell
Simon Heffer Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1,024pp, £25
Prisons of desire
Adultery and Other Diversions
Tim Parks Secker & Warburg, 136pp, £12.99
Blind vision
Fighting for Peace
General Sir Michael Rose Harvill Press, 256pp, £18
Stubborn isolation
Last days in Cloud Cuckooland: Dispatches from White Africa
Graham Boynton Random House International, 299pp, £16.99
Mind games
The Emotional Brain
Joseph Le Doux Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 384pp, £18.99
Books of the century
Elizabeth Young on the courage and daring of Hubert Selby
Observations
Letters to the Editor
New Statesman readers give their views - see what they said and find out how to contribute yourself by going to our letters pages


